The Final Mission

In the early morning, Shen Yi woke up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, his spirit fully restored. The exhaustion of his spirit this time made him realize the terrible consequences of overuse. He resolved to be more careful with his abilities in the future, to avoid depleting his spiritual energy again.

As Shen Yi reflected on his discovery, the door to his room was suddenly flung open. Anna, furious, stormed in and began hitting Shen Yi with her fists. "You jerk! Why didn't you tell me sooner that he was my brother? I almost killed him!"

Clearly infuriated by Shen Yi, Anna's punches were both fierce and heavy, marking Shen Yi with several "-1" damage points. Shen Yi grabbed her hand and tried to explain, but Anna, lost in her own anger, didn't seem interested in listening. Her relationship with her brother, Wiken, had been exceptionally close since childhood. After Wiken had been thrown off a cliff by a werewolf two months earlier, she had thought him dead, only to discover he had returned as a werewolf.

Knowing that Wiken was her brother and still choosing to fight against him, even withholding this information from her, Shen Yi's actions were incomprehensible and infuriating to Anna.

Seeing that he couldn't calm the fiery Anna, Shen Yi abruptly pulled her into a deep kiss. The kiss left Anna speechless and stunned, her initial resistance fading as she became overwhelmed by the intensity of the moment, her body going limp.

Once Anna had calmed down, Shen Yi sighed and broke away from the kiss. "Do you remember the bet we made when we killed the dwarf chieftain? I asked you to promise me one thing."

"What is it?" Anna asked, still dazed.

"It's this," Shen Yi replied. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner about your brother. I didn't know how to break it to you. The truth is, I wasn't entirely sure he had become a werewolf... I needed time to observe and analyze."

"I don't understand," Anna admitted.

Shen Yi smiled wryly. Of course, she wouldn't understand.

From the beginning, Shen Yi had been studying everything about the Van Helsing plot, as well as analyzing the behavior patterns of the bloody city. He had seen the movie Van Helsing before, but the content of the movie was completely different from the world he was experiencing.

With Shen Yi's involvement, the entire storyline had taken a completely different turn, just as Scarface had said: the bloody city was merely using the movie's background, providing adventurers with a world to navigate through quests.

In this world, adventure was the essence, and the storyline was just a supplement.

This was why Shen Yi encountered things that were not in the original plot, like the Silver Wolf and the dwarf chieftain, and why all the undead creatures had special abilities not present in the original storyline.

But for Shen Yi, it was these differences that made him keen on finding similarities. Only by identifying these common elements could he find opportunities to defeat Count Dracula.

So, Shen Yi was always looking for patterns and rules. He realized that although the direction of the plot had changed, and some local elements might vary, the core elements and themes of the plot remained unchanged. Just like history, no matter how it changes or who creates it, the forward progress of societal development cannot be altered.

In the Van Helsing plot, it was the same. No matter how much Shen Yi's involvement changed the plot and characters, some core elements remained constant.

For example, the existence of Count Dracula and his three brides, the existence of Frankenstein's monster, and the fact that Van Helsing had a major battle with the vampire brides upon arriving in the town, followed by Anna's brother visiting her that evening.

The main themes remained unchanged; only the details varied.

Discovering this pattern was crucial for Shen Yi to determine which aspects of the future plot were changeable and which were not.

Now, he had come to several vital conclusions. These conclusions were crucial for his plan to hunt down Count Dracula.

In this plan, Anna's werewolf brother Wiken was a key figure. In the original plot, Count Dracula was killed by Van Helsing, who had transformed into a werewolf. Werewolves were the only beings capable of killing Dracula.

Although this scenario would inevitably change in the mission world, Shen Yi was now sure that even if a werewolf couldn't deal a fatal blow to Dracula, it would still have a significant auxiliary damaging effect – one of the few unchangeable conclusions he had drawn.

This would be another key to defeating Dracula.

However, these were things he couldn't explain to Anna.

He could only offer a wry smile to Anna: "Before your brother appeared tonight, I couldn't be certain of some things. But after he showed up, I was finally able to confirm them. The reason I attacked him wasn't that I wanted to kill him, but because it was the only way to capture him without harming him or being harmed. Anna, I hope you can understand my actions. It was the best approach under the circumstances."

Anna looked at Shen Yi, her expression a mix of emotions. She hadn't forgotten how ferociously the werewolf had attacked Shen Yi the night before. How could she blame him? He had protected her and her brother.

Regretting her impulsiveness, she apologized softly, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I just felt this inexplicable anger when I found out you had hurt my brother."

Shen Yi gently embraced her, "I understand. If a stranger hurt my family, I wouldn't just be angry, I'd tear them apart. But it's more complicated when someone you care about hurts another loved one. Apart from anger and yelling, there isn't much we can do. We can't vent our feelings by hurting our loved ones, so sometimes we just end up loudly complaining to that person."

Anna chuckled when Shen Yi referred to himself as someone she cared about. "You're so understanding. Maybe I should beat you up more often so you don't start thinking you're too important to me."

"If you're willing to do that... Just remember, I'm still a patient," Shen Yi joked.

Anna gazed deeply at Shen Yi, her eyes playful as she traced the scars on his chest, "You don't look like a patient. Your recovery ability is astonishing. With wounds like yours, anyone else would have been bedridden for weeks, yet you've sustained them three times in just a few days. You're as tough as a bull, cunning as a fox, fierce as a wolf..."

She gave him a seductive look, her lips parting slightly, "And as brave as a tiger."

Shen Yi's heart skipped a beat, but he simply smiled wryly, "Thank you for the compliment, but we don't have time to waste."

"What are you talking about?"

"We have to kill Count Dracula tonight," Shen Yi stated seriously.

Anna was startled by his declaration. Shen Yi quickly led her out of the room, asking, "Where's your brother now?"

"He's in the living room, I've chained him up," Anna quickly replied.

As they walked towards the living room, Anna hurried after Shen Yi, "You just said you're going to kill Dracula tonight?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that too hasty?"

"Not at all. In fact, I've been preparing for this plan for a long time. I've been waiting for your brother's arrival. His arrival proved some things to me, meaning I can go ahead with the plan."

"What did it prove?"

"You don't need to know that. All you need to know is that I can help the Valerious family fulfill a centuries-old vow."

"But you'll have a hard time getting the townspeople to fight with you. They've just suffered heavy losses and aren't happy with you."

"We don't need them this time. In fact, they can't offer much more value. My mistake was not realizing that vampires aren't deterred by sheer numbers. Leading the townspeople in an attack would only strengthen the vampires. So, in the end, we can only rely on ourselves."

Shen Yi explained to Anna, "Dracula won't come alone; he'll have werewolves and dwarves with him. If the townspeople are united, they should be able to handle them. With their help, all we need to do is lure Dracula and his brides out."

"How will you lure them out?"

"Don't worry, I have a plan."

"And if your plan doesn't work?"

Shen Yi stopped, turned to Anna, and said solemnly, "Then we have only one path left: death."

In the tavern, Van Helsing sleepily asked Shen Yi, "You're going to kill Count Dracula today?"

"Yes."

"How?" Van Helsing spread his hands, "We don't even know where Dracula's castle is."

In the original story, the path to Dracula's castle was through a family painting in Anna's house, but Shen Yi had skipped this step, as it wasn't an unchangeable core element.

Shen Yi explained, "We don't need to know where he lives because we won't go looking for him. Dracula will come to us. We just need to set a trap and wait for him."

"On what basis?"

"Because I have something he wants," Shen Yi replied seriously.

Van Helsing looked puzzled, and Shen Yi continued, "Two days ago, we found someone in the underground cavern, someone who shouldn't exist in this world. I think you've heard of him - the creature created by Dr. Frankenstein."

"Damn!" Van Helsing smacked his forehead.

Thinking it over, he asked Shen Yi, "How do you know Dracula needs it?"

"You don't need to know every detail. Just know that the creature has a fatal attraction for Count Dracula. As soon as Dracula hears of it, he'll come to us."

"That sounds simple, but how will we get the message to him when we don't even know where he lives?"

Shen Yi's eyes gleamed with a mysterious smile, "Someone will help us deliver the message."